PC Wednesday afternoon (report)

Ok TLW has a doctors appointment at 11:30 so am just won't work for me but it looks good all day so far. Anyone not wanting to get up at buttcrack am is welcome to come but this time of year IS NOT new guy friendly as the surf is breaking ALL the way up to the cape so good chance for a swim. Not willing to guide the inexperienced on this go but there will be flat days we can get the FNG out on. Cosmo I believe is also planning to attend.

Forecast

Link to the mobile device live web camera at PC.
http://www.capekiwandarvresort.com/MOBI/Webcam.html

Darn it! That looks good! But, leg surgery that kept me out of the Chinook Showdown will keep me off the water for another 8 days... if all goes well.

Knock 'em dead!

I got out a little later then expected TLW's Doctor put a shot into her shoulder in hopes to avoid surgery, hope that works. Got on the beach around 1400 hrs did a quick prep with some help from SteveM and Williamesch, realized later I forgot my hog trough. Minnowmagnet was exiting when we were dragging down , he was kind enough to help an old crippled drag a barge aka the tuna aka my aircraft carrier, thanks Minnowmagnet. Launched on some fairly good size breakers that dumped SteveM breaking over him and let me tell you he knows reentry, after we rounded up a hat and bat we headed out Cosmo was battening down his hatches to head in said a quick hello and headed out to the rock. It was a bit windy and choppy as to why the boys were limited and heading back in. I got a few good long distance catch-n-releases brought a beautiful ling up but as I'm going for the lip grippers he slams his head on the yak and bends my 4oz lancer hook straight enough to jump off flip me the fin and swim away. No other love for me. The wind and chop settled down so we headed in with me in a good lead, cuz they were still catching and releasing fish I was timing the waves and knew it was damn tight getting in between breakers but set my slow paddle till I was ready and shot for the shoreline...... Well I'm not as fast as I needed to be and got a nice fast ride started to pitch a little left stern, dug my paddle into the breaker as I'm sliding on in to home plate my dumb ass leans too far over the wave and grabs my gunwale and rolls my yak right out from under me in 3-4 ft of water, after blowing the saline rinse out of my nostrils I took a quick survey and realize the only thing missing are my floating tackle box and my diet mt dew... Grabbed them on the walk in and told the dude knee deep in the water rushing out to rescue me that that's all part of the game.... Not if your rollin, but when! Williamesch was kind enough to give me a lingcod since he had two and SteveM also offered one so we played musical lingcods and packed up the gear to head home. On another not Williamesch was nice enough to bring me a tarp for the yaks but won't tell me how much I owe him so I'll be hitting with a inreturn deed. I'll let them post up all they C&R.

Thanks for a great post, and a reminder not "if" but "when"

Great write up Mojo.  Rock fish season just opened in Northern California and I can't wait to get out again!  Thanks for whetting the appetite!


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Good post Shannon - it was a blast getting back on the salt again.  I even got in a quick swim - damn that wave looked big! 

Great to see you guys out there yesterday.  I got in a bit earlier than expected, and the clouds coming in didn't look like there was going to be much of a window for flat conditions.

Getting in, the surf was flat, but coming in, was a bit of a ride.  I managed to time the waves based on  Shannon's coaching, and got in like a pro.  I'll take luck over skill any day.

As for fishing, there were a handful of free divers spearfishing on the north side of the rock, so I ventured out to find a few new reefs.  After I found some fish, it got into the Black Rocks pretty consistently.  At one point, I pulled in three at a time.  I tried a trick I read about that when you get a fish on, don't rush to reel it up, and just let it stay with the school.  Sure enough, the resistance got greater after about 30 seconds, and bam!, three fish on.  It worked a second time when I let the fish stay down, and ended up pulling up a nice black on my top jig and a 25 inch ling on the bottom jig.

I ended up with a limit of nice black rocks and the ling, but released several other smaller blacks and a 21 inch blue ling.  Here are a few pics.  Video to follow.

It was nice seeing the usual suspects out there. Sorry timing didn't work out so we could fish together a little. I launched early and had a really great time after such a long wait for the right conditions. I have to say that the second most fun thing in the world is catching those feisty salt-n-peppers on a really light trout setup using a small jig. I use the 4" Gulp minnow on 3/8oz jig with a 15 pound leader and those fish will not resist or let go of that little freshwater swimbait. I literally had a limit within 15 minutes and those fish made a u-turn out of the trout rod every time. Cool thing too is that the lings also really like that minnow. I caught my bigger one (32") on the lightweight setup and the drag screaming runs it took were terrifying. Ended up catching around 40 rockfish and 8 lings, with most of the latter being in the barely or not quite legal category. It was my first time crabbing in the ocean and I only dropped one trap. Was hoping for a PC grand-slam, but only ended with 5 crabs.
Shannon, don't feel bad; quite a few kayakers went into the spin-cycle during the return, myself included.

Glad you guys had fun and kept safe. Sounds like a fun day... can't wait to get into some of those early-season rockfish schools... man those are the good times.

I need to get out there!  It sounds like all had a great time!  Any chance you will be going out on a weekend coming up?

Zach,

Yesterday was the first flat day in weeks.  Good days are few and far between in the winter and spring, but you can bet that if the next one shows up on a weekend, I will be there. You are welcome to join any time.

Zach,

Yesterday was the first flat day in weeks.  Good days are few and far between in the winter and spring, but you can bet that if the next one shows up on a weekend, I will be there. You are welcome to join any time.

Thanks Cosmo!  I will have to keep an eye on Magic Sea Weed for the reports on swell.  Any other websites you recommend for that area?  I see the cam link posted above but it doesn't help too much with forecasting.

Thanks for the invite,  I will definitely keep an eye on the forum as well!

The other site I like is the webcam at the Cape Kiwanda RV Resort that Shannon mentions above.  It's a great live feed of Pacific City.  I watch it and compare the forecast on Magic Seaweed to see what certain size waves and period lengths are like.